THE GENESEE FARMER. 



245 



of Seneca Falls, in 2.52 ; the next three straight 

 heats were won by "Cliauipion," owned by Wm. 

 n. Ross, of Victor, in 2.48^, 2.49 and 2.57, but as 

 "Champion" was 5 years old, young "Grey Eagle" 

 was awarded the secovd prize. The next trot was 

 for a prize of $100, in two purses, $75 and $25. 

 There were three entries for this purse, viz: "Jake 

 Oakly," by Wm. II. Saitndkrs, of Syracuse; "Ni- 

 agarii," of Auburn, and "Lady llanford," by T. J. 

 Scott, of Rocliester ; the distance, two mile heats 

 in harne.ss, with wagon and driver to weigh not 

 over 300 lbs., the best two in three. The first heat 

 w;is closely won by L. E. Oaepenter's horse "Ni- 

 agara," iirst mile in 2.42; second heat by "Jake 

 Oukly" in 5.89^, the first mile in 2.43^. 



On the third day, Saturday in the afternoon, 

 came oti' the struggle for the $200, which was also 

 in two purses, .$150 and $50. At an early hour of 

 the day the fair grounds were covered with a living 

 multitude, and the now extended and covered ter- 

 raced seats or aTuphitheatre contained its thousands, 

 and the whole inside rail of the course was studded 

 with farmers' carriages filled witli their wives and 

 laughters, the little ones chinked in ; and as the 

 trains of cars came in from the east and west, they 

 aeld up at the crossing near the grounds to land their 

 oassengers. A Syracuse paper sets dowji the prob- 

 xble number present on the last djiy at 25,000 — a 

 Siigh estimate. An equine walking match, two 

 jiped foot races, scrub-racing, and tlie sale of horses 

 occupied tlie forenoon, when one fine horse was 

 ?o!d for $G00 by Cobb, of Geneva, to Mills, of 

 Buffalo. Early after dinner, by way of interlude, 

 ■ hat stalwart negro, Pompey Smash, drove Jos. 

 WiiiGnx's kicking nmle around the course before a 

 !iuge pair of wheels thirteen feet high ; as he drove 

 ip in front of the amphitheatre, he addressed the 

 adies in his best Nigger English ; this brought 

 iown the house. At 2 P. M. there was a green 

 Tot, best $15, second $5; time, inside of three 

 r.inutes. Tiien a double team trot, two entries ; 

 irst heat made in 3.3 ; second 2.57. Now came 

 ihe trot for the main prize, mile heats, best tliree 

 in five. "Jake Oakly," "Niagara," "Lady Han- 

 :brd," and Jos. Wkight's breeding mare, "lola," 

 were the four contestants. They were required to 

 rot in 2.40 to win. The first prize was won by 

 'Jake Oakly," the Syracuse horse, in 2.32^. The 

 second prize was awarded to Mr. Weight's mare 

 lola'." It is said she luight have won the first, 

 prize but for one baulk. This mare was only two 

 lays from grass, hence her present performance 

 hows what stie may be fitted to perform. It is 

 aid the "Jake Oakly" has now beat both Oourt- 

 and and Seneca. 



The June Feosts in CnAuxAUQUE County. — In 

 I letter from a Chautauque county farmer, who, 

 miarting under the elFects of the late frosts, de- 

 nurs to my assertion tliat Indian corn will not do 

 IS well near the equator as 40 degrees north of it. 

 vVhen a boy I heard the captain of a Rhode Island 

 ilaver say that the Guinea corn was a small flinty 

 ifi-'air, and Virginia corn (gourd seed) degenerated 

 here because the nights were not sliort and hot 

 inough. In the biglit of Benin a cold white fog 

 severs the land and marshes about the mouths of 

 he rivers and along the coast, which is present 

 leath to every white man that is exposed to it; 

 :be miasma, it is ti-ue, favors vegetation, but corn 



loves long hot days and short, warm dewy nights. 

 This same writer says there is very little corn in 

 the higher Chautauque, but plenty of scare-crows 

 in the fields, and he saw eight men in one field 

 phinting corn on the 20th June ; one farmer near 

 Chautauque lake, Avith thirty acres, had plowed 

 ten acres on which to sow corn for fodder to com- 

 pensate for his frozen grass crop ; locust and but- 

 ternut trees denuded by frost ; fruit damaged ; the 

 mercury fell to 22 deg. one morning at his house. He 

 says one thousand cows in tliat region must be dis- 

 posed of before winter, or there will be great bovine 

 suftering. But heretofore the Chautauque farmen 

 have made money fast, and they can well afford 

 one adverse season. Some farmers even now make 

 their sixty or seventy pound cheese daily, and the 

 New Yorkers contract for all their butter by the 

 season at 21 cts. a pound ; while here in our less 

 elevated warm dry region, no cheese is made, and 

 our farmers have to sell their butter (j'cleped grease 

 in New York) at 14 cts. a pound. Well may 

 Chautauque rejoice in her grass growing climate, 

 in spite of now and then a Siberian summer. 



PLOWING V3. SPADING. 



Baron von Liebig, in liis recent Letters on 

 Modern Agriculture^ says, "If the food of plants 

 in the soil can not move towards the roots, it is 

 evident that the roots must spi*ead about to look 

 for food." 



" A piece of bone weighing about 30,000 milli- 

 grammes, (one ounce) in a cubic foot of earth, pro- 

 duces no marked effect on its fertility. But if these 

 30,000 milligrammes of phosphate of lime be uni- 

 formly distributed throughout the earth, it wil' 

 suffice for the nourishment of 120 Wlieat plants. 

 Ten thousand milligrammes of food, having a surfaee 

 extent of 100 square mi'limetres, are within the same 

 given time not more effective than ten milligrammes 

 having the same surface extent. Of two fields 

 with the same amount of food, one may be very 

 fertile, and the other equally unfruitful, if the food 

 is more uniformly distributed throughout the for- 

 mer than the latter. 



" The common plow hreahs and turns up the soil 

 without mixing it; it only displaces, to a certain 

 extent, the spots on which plants are already 

 grown. But the spade breaks, turns, and mixes it 

 thoroughly^ 



" As the smallest portions of food can not of 

 themselves leave the spot in which they are held 

 firmly fixed by the so'l, we can understand what 

 immense influence must be exerted on its fertility 

 by its careful mechanical division and thorough 

 intermixture. This is the greatest of all the ditii- 

 culties which the agriculturist has to overcome. 



"If a field is to produce a crop, corresponding 

 to the full amount of food present in it, the first 

 and most important condition for its accomplish- 

 ment is, that its physical state be such as to permit 

 even the finest rootlets to reach the spots where 

 the food is to be found. The extension of the roots 

 in every direction must not be obstructed by the co- 

 hesion of the soil. Plants with thin delicate roots 

 can not grow on a tenacious heavy soil, even with 

 abundance of mineral food. These facts explain in 

 a very simple manner one of the many favorable 

 effects of green manures on such soils, and enable 



